The Caretaker's Concern for 4/26/2010

TCC for 4/26/10:

Sunrise photo from this morning:


Video from this morning, the call of three Loons, one in the water the other two in flight:


Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second winter on the Island:

Island Ice Report for 2/15/07:

Outside temp: 10 F
Ghetto temp: 60 F
Wind: mostly calm, occasional gusts from the West
Sky: clear, star filled
Precipitation: none

The Caretaker made a point to go out in yesterday's snow storm for a variety of reasons, however the snow was blowing so hard that he didn't want to bring his camera out in it for fear the camera would get damaged. So, to give you an idea of what it was like here is a comparison. For those of you who are familiar with The Empire Strikes Back you will remember the opening part of the movie when Han Solo goes out in the snow storm to find Luke Skywalker and when Han does find Luke he puts him in the (whatever that animal was), well, it was snowing like that only harder and blowing even stronger. For the most part it was pretty much whiteout conditions for the entire day. And the snow was so fine that it found its way into everything. The door to the Ghetto is not exactly "air tight", one time I came back into the Ghetto to find a pile of snow about a foot high and a foot wide just inside the door. Overall the experience was not too unpleasant.
The Caretaker spent much of today cleaning up the snow that got into places it shouldn't have, however, late in the afternoon he did slap on his skis and go out on to the ice. The effect of the wind and the snow on the ice has made for some rather odd surface conditions. If the surface of the Moon was snow and not green cheese that is what the skiing was like on the ice today. Where the ice is exposed it has been roughed and etched by the wind, and mounds of snow are mostly hard crusted. One problem with the snow on the ice is that there is a four inch layer of water and slush between the ice and snow so when your skis get down to it they freeze up. The other problem with the snow is that you can't easily tell where the ice has opened up due to pressure cracks. The Caretaker had begun to ski his way over to Three Brother Islands so as that he would have a clear path for when he needs to get to his car for more supplies, but about a third of the way there he saw a sizable depression in the snow which could have just been from wind erosion or it was from where the ice had broken open and since he couldn't see the ice in the area he didn't want to find out the hard way what the situation was. So he turned around and went back. Better to leave that for another day by which that time the ice should have frozen over, if it had indeed opened up. After skiing around a bit more on the ice the Caretaker went back to the Island and skied around there. One of the snow drifts is about five feet high, it is in front of the Ghetto, heading towards Cocktail point the snow drift dips down and then back up again then slopes down to Cocktail point, this makes for a quick little bit of down hill skiing. Spectacular? No, but better than nothing. There is a loop that goes around the Croquet course and then goes back to the "Island Ski Slope", the Croquet lights provide for night skiing.

















--The Caretaker